FOR THE RECORD

From "China: The Coming Changes," an article by Chong-Pin Lin in the American Enterprise (January/February):

After the Tiananmen incident, Major General Wu Jiamin {of the People's Liberation Army} wrote:

"In 1949, I was a 17-year-old soldier. As we marched into Peiping {now Beijing} to liberate the people, there were flowers, ribbons, cheers and smiling faces everywhere. I felt glorious and happy. Forty years later, as an army commander, I entered the city on the same route... . We were pursued, blocked, hit by bricks and soft-drinks bottles, stared at and cursed at... . Forty years ago, I came ... under the Party leadership to seize power; this time ... I came under the Party leadership to preserve power."

The book "One Day Under Martial Law," which contained the above and other passages unflattering to Beijing's hard-line leadership, was relesed by the PLA's official publisher in October 1989. It was banned in early 1990 by the Party. In September 1990, the Party banned another book released by the PLA, "White Snow, Red Blood," and detained its author, Lieutenant Colonel Zhang Zhenglong, for "seriously exposing the dark sides of the Army."

These unusual episodes are symptoms of the fracturing of the army that once was the paragon of altruistic solidarity and the pillar of national unity. Despite the post-Tiananmen revival of political indoctrination in the PLA, the Army may not remain monolithic or be a loyal instrument of the dictatorial rulers in the next upheaval. . . .